Having fresh, clean drinking water is a privilege many people take for granted. Help raise awareness about the scarcity of water and the importance of conservation by discussing different ways water is used in everyday life. Brainstorm...

Students analyze a graphic from an article and predict what the article might be about. After reading an article, they discover a journalist's experience of traveling across the United States to compare fast food restaurants. They...

Begin exploring main idea in a text by telling the class an interesting story. Can they recall the main idea after you finish? What clues told them this was it? Explain that you will apply this concept as you read a nonfiction book....

Learners examine the procedures that writers utilize to obtain and develop ideas for writing. Journal writing is fostered as a primary step in the writing process. Learners are encouraged to pay careful attention to using complete...

Students brainstorm ideas for different kinds of jobs. From this list of ideas, each student chooses one job or career to research further. They use written resources, read a variety of texts in making their choice.

Poems For Two Voices are a great resource in any language arts classroom, whether you are studying poetry or not. Focusing on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, this lesson prompts young authors to write a Poem For Two...

Students brainstorm ideas for a teacher selected writing topic. They demonstrate seven steps for writing an academic essay. They jot down words or phrases using different colored pens. They write a thesis statement and create an outline...

How does an author develop and contrast character points of view in a work of literature? Using a graphic organizer, readers continue gathering evidence about character point of view from Linda Sue Park's A Long Walk to Water. Next,...

Students complete activities to learn how to develop story ideas in journalistic writing. In this story ideas lesson plan, students learn news value judging criteria, identify language to ask beat sources for story ideas, distinguish...

Help your middle-schoolers expand their writing skills with this lesson plan on episodic writing, which focuses on story details, idea development, and organization. After reading "The Eighth Picture: End of Summer" from Patricia Reilly...

What is on your pupils' "Bucket Lists" - the list of things they want to do before they die? Their choices of activities for this list could be very revealing, and is a great source of inspiration for a personal poem. The lesson plan...

Set up your class to read Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan, through a class read-aloud and exploration of the setting. The detailed lesson plan outlines each step. First, class members read over the first few pages and focus on the...

Middle schoolers share the difficulties they have in determining what to write or draw for a project. In groups, they view examples from three different artists and discuss how their personal experiences affected their art. They...

Upper graders view a series of films that depict rituals or celebrations as they occur in different cultural settings. They conduct a cultural investigation about one culture, brainstorm and research objects that have cultural or...

Use the constructive ideas in this resource to assist in developing your own career writing project for your junior high or young high school scholars. The resource provides step-by-step plans for the educator and learners, as well...

Scholars discuss the many ways they use persuasion in their everyday lives and brainstorm specific ideas for encouraging someone to do something. With the list of persuasive techniques they made, young writers complete a graphic...

"Come gather round people, wherever you roam..." Bring the voice of Bob Dylan to your class with this lesson plan, which takes Dylan's song "The Times They Are A-Changing" and analyzes both the message and voice in the lyrics. Your class...

Anchors aweigh, it's time to write! After viewing an anchor chart detailing the parts of a position paper, pupils share their plans for their essays with a partner. Next, they write the rough draft of their body paragraphs. 

Second graders use acting to help them in a prewriting activity to develop a story. In this prewriting lesson plan, 2nd graders form a character map and brainstorm ideas for their story.

How can you foster a thoughtful learning community for your class? First, the class brainstorms a list of behaviors that will help make the classroom a great place to learn. Then learners group similar ideas together and come up with...

What is your idea of paradise? Middle and high schoolers share their visions of paradise on earth in this lesson, in which they view a video segment about Shangri-La. Your high schoolers can discuss and then write about their ideas in a...

Blundering, audacious, obscurest. Class members develop strategies for teaching each other vocabulary words drawn from The Hobbit.

Read, discuss, and write short stories with your primary class. They read a short story and complete worksheets for the story. They also brainstorm ideas for a class story and choose an idea to write 3 ideas and then write the story as a...

Students use Internet to research definition of an assigned vocabulary word, and brainstorm ideas for how to teach the new word to classmates in an innovative way using a digital format.